Thursday, December 31, 2009

In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertilizer's invention, so large shipments of manure were common.

It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less thanwhen wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by product is methane gas. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen.

Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM! Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determinedjust what was happening

After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term "Ship High In Transit" on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

Thus evolved the term "S.H.I.T " , (Ship High In Transport) which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Rewind to Inauguration Day in January. President-elect Obama ushered in a new administration with much fanfare and hope for C-H-A-N-G-E. Now 12 months later, it's business as usual.

We have a problem with that! Enormous bonus payouts for executives. Toxic, dangerous assets that remain on banks' balance sheets. The same executives running firms they took to the brink with risky investment choices. The "too big to fail" institutions took the global economy to the precipice -- but were saved with hefty rescue packages thanks to American taxpayers -- are now bigger than ever.

As summarized by Howard Davidowitz, "I have a problem with that!" So do many Americans as populist outrage rises.

In fact, it's anything but business as usual for American workers who are grappling with 10% unemployment -- the highest level in 26 years -- and no guarantee the economic bottom is in place for 2010.

While the $787 billion stimulus package has yet to filter down to local communities, it's no wonder Americans are asking: "Where's MY bailout?"

Empire falling? Detroit is a city under siege. While Ford avoided bankruptcy, sales are down sharply. Chrysler was strong-armed into an alliance with Italy's Fiat. The government ousted GM's CEO Rick Wagoner. With nagging questions about America's competitiveness and debts mounting, it's no wonder historians like Niall Ferguson of Harvard University are contemplating the rise and fall of empires.

"If you're trying to borrow $9 trillion to bail out your financial system and your economy, and already half your public debt is owned by foreigners, it's not really the conduct of a rising empire is it?" Ferguson asks.

Stock mark rising. Sure the market has staged a phenomenal recovery off the March bottom, the lowest levels since 1997. The Dow today is firmly above 10,000. But among the bulls and bears, the debate continues on the recession's definitive end. What the recovery will look like from here -- V-shaped, W, square root? Take your pick from the alphabet, recovery soup.

But as Columbia University professor and economist Joseph Stiglitz points out, for most Americans the question is: "Can they get a job?" The likelihood of a big improvement on that front anytime soon is "very remote," Stiglitz says.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

The big bang has made idealists out of anybody who thinks. First there was absolutely nothing, then Bang! Something. This is beyond weird. Out of sheerest Emptiness, manifestation arises.

This is a nightmare for traditional science, because it puts a time limit on the silly chance mutations that were supposed to explain the universe. Remember the thousand monkeys and Shakespeare - an example of how chance could give rise to the ordered universe?

"Given enough time, the randomly typing monkeys would manage to type out a Shakespeare play".

Given enough time! One computation showed that the chance for monkey power to produce a single Shakespeare play was one in ten thousand million million million million million million. So maybe that would happen in a billion billion years. But the universe doesn't have a billion billion years. It only has twelve billion years.

Well, this changes everything. Calculations done by scientists from Fred Hoyle to F.B. Salisbury consistently show that twelve billion years isn't even enough to produce a single enzyme by chance.

In other words, something other that chance is pushing the universe. For traditional scientists, chance was their salvation. Chance was their god. Chance would explain all. Chance plus unending time would produce the universe. But they don't have unending time, and so their god fails miserably. That god is dead. Chance is not what explains the universe; in fact, chance is what the universe is laboring mightily to overcome. Chance is exactly what the self transcending drive of the Cosmos overcomes.

Now the "religious creationists" have made quite a big deal out of this. They say it fits with the Bible and Genesis. They have seized upon the increasingly obvious truth that the traditional scientific explanation will not cut it. Creativity, not chance, builds a Cosmos. But it does not follow that you can then equate creativity with your favorite and particular God. It does not follow that into this void you can postulate a God with all the specific characteristics that make you happy - God is the God of only the Jews, or only the Hindus, or only the indigenous peoples, and God is watching over me, and is kind, and just, and merciful, and so on. We have to be careful about these types of limited and anthropomorphic characteristics, which is one of the reasons I prefer "Emptiness," which means unbounded or unclassifiable.

But the fundamentalists, the "creationists," seize upon these vacancies in the scientific hotel to pack the conference with their delegates. They see the opening - creativity is an absolute - and they equate that absolute with their mythic god, and they stuff this god with all the characteristics that promote their own ego inclinations, starting with the fact that if you don't believe in this particular god, you fry in hell forever, which exactly reflects the state of mind of those who believe this brutal notion.

So we have to start simple, I think, and be very careful. There is a spiritual opening in the Cosmos. Let us be careful how we fill it. the simplest is: Spirit or Emptiness is unclassifiable, but it is not inert and unyielding, for it gives rise to manifestation itself: new forms emerge, and that creativity is ultimate.

If you shower each day for 7 minutes, using a shower with a flow rate of 2 gallons per minute, you are using 14 gallons of water per day (7 minutes x 2 gallons), or 98 gallons per week. Rounding that up to 100 gallons per week, in 52 weeks you would be using 5,200 gallons of water per year to take a daily shower.

Comparing 5,200 gallons of water used by taking a 7 minute shower every day for a year, to the 5,214 gallons of water it takes to produce a pound of beef (using the estimate noted by water specialists at the University of California, noted above), you realize that in California today, you can save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you will save by not showering for a year.

Take your choice -- 4 hamburgers or a year's worth of showers?

According to the calculations of the celebrated Dr. Pimentel of Cornell, you could go two years without a shower and still not save as much water as you would by not eating one pound of beef.

Number of people whose food energy needs can be met by the food produced on 2.5 acres of land:

If the land is producing cabbage 22 peopleIf the land is producing potatoes 19 peopleIf the land is producing rice 17 peopleIf the land is producing corn 15 peopleIf the land is producing wheat 2 peopleIf the land is producing chicken 2 peopleIf the land is producing milk 1 personIf the land is producing eggs 1 personIf the land is producing beef 1/2 person

"In a world where an estimated one in every six people goes hungry every day, the politics of meat consumption are increasingly heated, since meat production is an inefficient use of grain -- the grain is used more efficiently when consumed directly by humans. Continued growth in meat output is dependent on feeding grains to animals, creating competition for grain between affluent meat eaters and the world's poor." -Worldwatch Institute

No other Greek god came into the world in quite the same way as Dionysus. His father was Zeus, whose name means "shower of light." Lord of the sky, god of the thunderbolt, Zeus was the most powerful of all the gods of Olympus. He loved women, mortal and immortal, and enjoyed many love affairs. His wife, the goddess Hera, was naturally angry and jealous. She was forever seeking revenge for Zeus's many love affairs and a goddess scorned has fury indeed.

Born of Fire

One day Zeus was traveling on earth. He wore a disguise, because undisguised no mortal could look at him and live. He came to Thebes, an ancient city of Greece, where he fell hopelessly in love with Semele, the daughter of King Cadmus. Their passion was great, and before long she became pregnant.

Semele wanted nothing more than to look into the true eyes of her lover. She was urged on mercilessly by her nurse who happened to be the treacherous Hera in disguise. Finally Semele could stand it no longer. She asked Zeus to grant her a boon.

Zeus was in a good mood, and he loved the young woman. Foolishly, he swore an unbreakable oath on the River Styx that she could have whatever she asked.

When the innocent Semele asked tosee the god of the thunderbolt in his true splendor, Zeus was horrified. He knew that the sight of his godhead would mean her certain death.

"No!" he cried in anguish. "Anything but that. You do not know what you are asking for." But she persisted and Zeus sadly kept his word. As he shed his disguise and revealed his fiery radiance, the unfortunate Semele was almost completely incinerated. Only her womb, around which she had wrapped some ivy, escaped the flame. (Ivy is said to be the only thing on earth that is impervious to the splendor of god.)

Zeus was furious. Quickly, he plucked the fetus from the womb, cut an incision in his own thigh, and tucked the child into it.

The baby continued to grow in Zeus's thigh. When gestation was complete Zeus gave birth to the infant god Dionysus.

This child of fire was a brand new force to be reckoned with. Even the Titans the powerful first gods of earth, who represented the instinctive masculine qualities were quaking in their boots. Brutally, they tore the baby to pieces and boiled him for good measure. They weren't going to have anything like this coming into the world.

But Dionysus would not stay dead. A pomegranate tree, symbol of fertility, sprouted from the earth where a drop of his blood had fallen; and Zeus's mother, Rhea, made Dionysus whole once again. In this way the young god was born three times: once from his mortal mother's womb; once from his immortal father's thigh; and once from the wisdom of the earth, represented by his grandmother. With a start like this, one wonders what kind of a god we have on hand.

The Young God

Semele's sister Ino and her husband, Athamas, raised the baby Dionysus as a girl so that Hera would not recognize him.

But the goddess was not deceived, and in her rage she drove the aunt and uncle mad.

Zeus acted quickly. He ordered Hermes, the divine messenger, to transform Dionysus temporarily into a young goat and bring him to the beautiful Mount Nysa. There he would be raised secretly by nymphs, the joyous female spirits of the forests and mountains.

The nymphs loved their young charge. They housed him in a cave and fed him on honey. Dionysus spent his childhood gamboling freely over the mountainside, surrounded by the glories of nature and learning the sensuous pleasures of the earth. His teachers were many and varied: The Muses inspired him with poetry and music. The satyrs, half-man, half-goat, taught him the wonders of dance and exuberant sexuality. The sileni, part-horse, part-man, spirits of the springs and rivers, taught him wisdom. Silenus, the intoxicated old man who was Dionysus's predecessor, taught the young god virtue.

Dionysus passed the years happily, learning many things. Like the grapevine, which can only grow in the sun's intense heat and the moisture of the spring rain, Dionysus had been born of fire and nourished by the rains of the mountain. He understood the power of the vine perfectly, and marked his passage from childhood to young godhood by inventing the art of winemaking (some say he learned it from Silenus), which would bring humanity so much potential joy and desperation.

At last Dionysus stood revealed as a god. This was just what the ever-vengeful Hera had been waiting for. Recognizing Dionysus at last, she cursed him with madness.

The Travels of Dionysus

The raving Dionysus left his home on Mount Nysa and began to travel the world. Mad as he was, Dionysus was still a powerful god. Wherever he went he spread the art of winemaking and his own worship.

He was accompanied by a startling array of followers: His tutor, the fat old drunkard Silenus, rode precariously on a donkey; grinning satyrs, joyous nymphs, prancing centaurs, and other woodland spirits capered and danced alongside. For human followers he had the Maenads. These wild women of the mountains, initiates of the ancient women's mysteries, worshiped their god with singing, dancing, and bloody feasts. Together, they cut a swath of wild and joyous celebration across the ancient world.

In time Rhea purified the young god of his madness and initiated him into her mysteries, the very secret women's mysteries. The power of Dionysus was then unparalleled...

Thursday, December 24, 2009

We all need to consume less. Less of everything. The earth is heating up at a rapid rate and many changes are already happening world wide. I recently read an article on the MSNBC web site about the latest must have toys for wealthy Americans. Bowling alley. Indoor shooting range. Professional size indoor basketball court. Media rooms. How much raw materials and energy is expended by the creation of these things. A bowling alley was once built and used for entire small town. Now for one individual. The ecological cost iof these vanity toys is huge. When will we grow up? What makes people so self centered and selfish?

Americans consume way too much energy. They are currently the primary source for the causes of gobal warming. And now this: indoor professional basketball courts, indoor firing ranges, 200,000 dollar car condos to store extra vehicles. You might say, hey if they can afford it, why not. Well they are not paying for the damage that they are doing to the earth. If they did maybe a 60,000 dollar Humvee would cost 600,000 dollars. Is it right for people to install a bowling alley in there own home?

(The above is something I wrote in 2006...hmmm perhaps there are not so many bowling alleys being built in private homes in 2010)

3) In order to download a file (audio, video, game or text) you need a program installed on your computer that will "take" the file and place in on your hard drive. Sounds complicated but really you do nothing, it does it all. The following is one of the best such programs and it is very easy to install and it is free -

The best thing happening in our once great nation is the fourth estate. Journalism and it’s offshoots in the blogosphere (big cheer to Mr. Rithholtz) are the only bastion left where there is the semblance of truth and a hope for a better tomorrow.

Hey, Curmudgeon – I spend most of the year in a wonderful village by the ocean in southern Spain. The quality of life here is high and the cost of living is low. I was born and raised in NYC. I visit the U.S. regularly but after spending most of my time in Europe over the last 5 years I don’t think I would ever want to live there full time. Here is a link to a cheesy tourist video on my town:

IMO: All people should have reasonable access to complete health care coverage. They have it in France and Spain. I am not even in their health care system and I am covered because I am here. I pay 106 Euros per month for private insurance to cover my wife and myself. When I go to the doctors here they don’t even want to take my health care insurance card because it is free for everyone else and they don’t want to bother with filling out the form. Health care is that inexpensive. In Spain the average doctor salary is 34,000 Euros a year. A prescription for an antibiotic that I had filled in NYC which cost 185 dollars I had the same prescription filled here in Spain cost 4.31 Euros. Americans have been swindled by the Pharmaceutical, insurance, and health-care system. There is going to be a revolution at some point in the future. Americans will not take being kicked around forever. Americans will wake up and when they do there will be hell to pay.

Lastly, thanks to everyone for the interesting, informative and educational postings. I really feel my life has been enriched by following THE BIG PICTURE and it’s community:

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Up and AwayFelice Dunas - I teach sexual skills that enable couples to have lasting, meaningful and sexy love affairs, and also provide patients with information, answers and relief by showing them how to include alternative medicine into their healthcare programs.

Arthur Imparato Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life. Thanks for coming in my life early on...happy holidays.2 seconds ago

Felice Dunas I hope today was full of joy, passion, vitality and appreciation for what IS working out well!

"Hey Tigree, me man...what's up...if you ever ass rape a white women you must deny deny deny...uh that is until they getcha by de balls and you must admit to the master what it is you done. If you do and if you do good sport work he will allow you to get back out there and fracxk more white chicks. It's all goood....

Will Sasso You know what TV needs? A show about a clairvoyant that sees crimes before they happen... but doesn't give a shit. Where's my fucking money?44 minutes ago · Comment ·LikeUnlike

Cinder Rothschild and 12 others like this.

Rob Hruska Where's your fucking -- oh, wait.

Jonathan Layes ms.swan?....ya i saw mon...he do bad thing...yaaaaa...

Meleni Lourdes Muniz You're a genius.

Shelley Brodie Nelson I see.... dead people. Let's go to Taco Bell.

Cinder Rothschild I might actually watch that. Wait - can I audition for the role of the hack partner/retired cop who smokes weed and beats on rowdy bar patrons just for fun?

Rob Hruska You know what TV needs? A show about a plane that crashes on an island, and everyone is stranded, and weird shit happens and there's some black smoke monster. Where's my fucking money?!?

Doug Limpwerst that's gay

Blade Rogers somebody just got raped and stabbed to death.....he's running back to house to wash off the blood...he sitting down and running away to south america.......lets go grab a brew its on me...wheres my fuckin money

Darren Elmore "thats gay"? What grade are you in?

Arthur Imparato you know what TV needs? a show about real people doing reel things to real people. in nature. like on a prairie. yea a whittle hut on de prairie...like" Modern Family" only with animals and stuff...and with a little bit of "Damages" thrown in with running mascara and torn nylons. Hey "Bored to Death" meets "Californication" meets "Flashforward". Ouch...i just crapped me pants...where's my fracking scratch?about a minute ago · Delete

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Mara Bagott Parker Has not had a working microwave for nearly two weeks. Lord, it's like living in the dark ages!Arthur Imparato i have never used a microwave

Mara Bagott Parker You haven't lived until you've coked a bag of popcorn in less than four minutes

Mara Bagott Parker Ooops...cooked

Arthur Imparato i cook pop corn on the stove top in about six minutes...

Mara Bagott Parker Yes, but those are two minutes I just can't spare:)

Arthur Imparato true true

Samantha Romaine how would I heat up day old coffee during finals week at your house? (kidding... it's really tea :D)

Lisa Haywood-Vann go buy a new one...?

Mara Bagott Parker Sam, guess you'd be making lots of starbucks runs or drinking it iced. Lisa (smartass) I would buy a new one, but the expensive, bulit-in micro that I have caught on fire. I think the company should stand behind their product and replace it free of charge. The repair guy is coming out tomorrow to take a look at it. Hoping they will give me a new one and little extra for pain and suffering. Do you know how long it takes to defrost a chicken without a microwave?? Days!

Lisa Haywood-Vann love ya babe!!

Mara Bagott Parker haha...love ya too, Lisa!

Arthur Imparato you may want to use this opportunity to get out of the microwave world. there are many research articles you can read (just google microwaves) but the bottom line is that the manner in which the food is heated destroys elements of food that are very needed. A few extra minutes could add up to a much healthier life in the future. Here is a simple article that may benefit you if you can spare 10 minutes to read it:

Bonnie Stinchcomb I felt the same way when our washer went out on us after 14 years. Handwashing clothes like a settler down by the rocks is not my thing.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

It is time for President Obama to step up and make something happen. It is easy to call the banksters 'fat cats'. Now what are you going to do about it? Are you really going to let Joe Lieberman decide your re-election 2012?

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Without a doubt one of Spain's genuine world leading gourmet delights is Cerdo Iberico - the pork from the black Iberian Pig.

What makes this meat so incredibly special is that for the last few months of each pig's life, they are allowed to graze free-range in acorn forests (dehesas), munching their way though literally tons of acorns (bellotas), which have fallen from both holm and cork oak trees.

It is these acorns which gives the fat of the pigs its unique, sweet flavour, whether you are eating the ham or cooked pork. Take a look at the pork in its raw state and you will notice how the meat is shot through with streaks of creamy white fat. Best of all this fat dissolves during the cooking process, flavouring the meat and making it perfectly tender.

The happy Iberican pig can only be bred in a few parts of Spain and nowhere else in the world does it get its unique flavour. In Spain this region stretches from as far south as the Aracena region, around Jabugo - the jamon capital of Spain - and then up into the far north of the Salamanca region. With oak forests becoming increasingly endangered and shrinking each year, it is a finite production becoming more in demand each year, particularly since the US finally allowed its import in 2007. Now priced in the US at around 100 dollars a pound, these hams are often described as the most expensive in the world.

The acorns are the key to the quality of the meat, not just in the way they sweeten the fat. The acorns make the pigs thirsty, forcing them to run around looking for water and making them more athletic, developing fine bones which are evident in a leg of jamon Iberico.

Breeding these pigs is no easy task - it is literally at the opposite end of the spectrum of normal intensive pig farming. This is obviously reflected in the price. The most expensive and best quality is called jamon iberica de bellota. This ham comes from pigs, who have lived free-range all their lives, dining almost entirely on acorns. The more exercise these pigs get, the more the fat blends into their muscles and the tastier the meat becomes. It is considered the 5J (cinco jotas) is the King of jamon bellota.

The next grade is called jamon iberico de recebo. This ham is from pigs that are both pasture and compound fed a combination of acorns and grain. The third type is called jamon iberico de pienso, or simply, jamon iberico. This ham is from Iberian pigs that are solely compound fed on grain and some acorns.

The term pata negra is also used to refer to jamon iberico in general and may refer to any one of the three above types.

Jamon serrano comes from cerdo blanco, the more common white pig, that is solely grain fed. The white pig comprises about 90 percent of the pork and ham production in Spain.

Another important thing to understand in terms of price and quality is which leg you are buying. A jamon iberico is normally the hind leg of the pig. A patetilla is the front leg. Nevertheless, a patetilla can have an excellent taste and undergoes the same processes of ham making. the difference is that a patetilla is smaller and has more fat. Therefore it is cheaper. A Patetilla Iberico de Bellota is usually less then half the price of a Jamon Iberico de Bellota.

The saturated animal fat from the jamon iberico is actually good for you as not only is it the best quality fat - it also leaves you feeling more satisfied. Animal fats give us energy and boost the immune system and can actually lower bad cholesterol.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

(the following is an excerpt from an op-ed from the Wall Street Journal)

"He supplied ample liquidity when it was most needed last autumn, and he has certainly been willing to pull out every last page of the central banker playbook. If some of those decisions were mistakes, the conditions the Fed faced were extraordinary. Anyone at the helm would have made calls that in hindsight he'd regret.

The real problem is Mr. Bernanke's record before the panic, with its troubling implications for a second four years. When George W. Bush nominated the Princeton economist four years ago, we offered the backhanded compliment that at least he'd have to clean up the mess that the Alan Greenspan Fed had made. That mess turned out to be bigger than even we thought, but we also didn't know then how complicit Mr. Bernanke was in Mr. Greenspan's monetary decisions.

Now we do, thanks to the release of the Federal Open Market Committee transcripts from 2003. They show (see "Bernanke at the Creation," June 23, 2009) that Mr. Bernanke was the intellectual architect of the decision to keep monetary policy exceptionally easy for far too long as the economy grew rapidly from 2003-2005. He imagined a "deflation" that never occurred, ignored the asset bubbles in commodities and housing, dismissed concerns about dollar weakness, and in the process stoked the credit mania that led to the financial panic."

Obviously this cover was shot months ago and who could have foreseen the recent events in the on going story of Mr. Woods' woody.

Ten tips indeed. Number one has got to be - don't leave voice mail telling your mid-night booty call to erase your name from her mobile phone directory...why? Because voice mail is a recording of your voice and when you say "hey, hi it's Tiger..." - that kind of makes it hard for you to lie your way out of the jam.

Should Nike drop Tiger? Yes and they should do it fast unless they want almost two decades of brand build out to come to signify - Just Do It...ha ha hahaha.

I would think that Michele Obama may not want her husband joining Tiger on any wife unsupervised future golf outings...

How Much Is Enough?At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, the late Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, the author Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel, Catch-22, over its whole history. Heller responds, ‘Yes, but I have something he will never have: Enough'

There was a story a couple of years ago in the London Sunday Times Magazine - they asked a sampling of Londoners what would make them happy in a material sense. People had various responses but they were all similar - a nice car, house, clothes, wife/husband, vacations, artworks etc. Well the paper then calculated the costs of these basics for happiness and the figure came out to be over 1.7 million British Pounds (about 2.5 million dollars). Divided by the average British after tax salary it meant that it would take the average British citizen 145 years to put together all the things they would need to be happy. Since the average life expectancy in England is about 78 years...well I guess you see the point.

In Mexico, if you have 500 dollars a month to spend on living you are living high on the hog. In New York City that wouldn't cover your cab tab for a month. In Kabul Afghanistan, one dollar will get you a days worth of food, shelter and maybe a little entertainment. In Paris that dollar (70 Euro cents) will buy you a one minute phone conversation on a public phone. And so it goes, the world turns and people with relative extraordinary wealth live in places that cost extraordinarily expensive and end up living in relative poverty.

"The true deception of financial freedom need not be blamed on anyone but oneself; however, this is not necessarily an intentional deception — it is a result of the human condition. As humans, we are constantly searching for patterns that will reveal the shortest distance from point A to point B; and we are searching for meaning and fulfillment; but we trick ourselves into believing that we are searching for pleasure — and money buys pleasure, at least according to the thousands of implicit and explicit messages we receive on a daily basis."

I live in a small village, pop 15,000, where people with very little wealth or income live extraordinarily well. Beautiful small but charming homes, excellent year round weather, ocean, nature, clean locally grown fruit and vegetables, fresh locally caught seafood, affordable restaurants and excellent near to free health care. And when I visit the U.S. and see people who are earning 200, 000 plus a year stressed out and freaked out about money and expenses and having to have more to be able to be in a place where they can be happy.

"There is no such thing as financial freedom, at least not in the conventional sense of the term, which is the great deception. Paradoxically, the pursuit of financial freedom is closer to slavery than it is liberating. Furthermore, and in my humble opinion, freedom cannot be procured by financial means — freedom most likely lies at the point at which the utility for money begins to diminish — the point at which the basic sources of physical well-being — food, shelter and clothing — have been met. Beyond this point, freedom cannot be procured by financial means, yet millions continue pursuing the idea of financial freedom."

This is the deceit. This is the illusion.

True freedom begins by learning contentment — by the realization that you already have “enough” — where the search for pleasure can be replaced by the search for meaning.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

End Of Huckabee's CareerA man with an extensive criminal past — including a lengthy prison sentence commuted by former Republican wannabe presidential nominee Mike Huckabee nearly a decade ago — was being sought Sunday in a deadly ambush on four police officers who were gunned down inside a coffee shop.

In 1989, Clemmons, then 17, was convicted in Little Rock for aggravated robbery. He was paroled in 2000 after Huckabee commuted Clemmons' 95-year prison sentence. Huckabee was criticized during his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 for granting many clemencies and commutations.

Former Arkansas Republican Governor and current host of the Fox News Channel talk show "Huckabee" says that if he would of known that Maurice Clemmons, 37, was going to gun down four police officers in Washington State that he would not of pardoned him 10 years ago when he was Arkansas governor.

Really. You wouldn't? Well that is big of you to admit that.

The new America, just say you are sorry and then it is OK.

So, Mr. Huckabee, your actions have resulted in the deaths of three policemen, one policewoman and now in the death of the man you pardoned.

Now Afghanistan. Why not just get out. Now. What does he think he can accomplish there? Armin Karzid is a drug running thug, another man Bush looked into the eyes of and saw his soul. Why continue this ridicules dance?

The old school military industrial complex has got Obama by his short hairs. Shades of Lyndon Johnson. Why are we, the American people, letting the Taliban dictate the frame of our engagement. Who the frack! are they. So they harbored some bad people who plotted against us. We need to grow up and deal with it. They are not going to come swimming accross the Atlantic and rush our shores and eat our young. They are nobodies unless we stupidly choose to make them into somebodies. A weak enemy loves and stupid foe.

The end never justifies the means. Killing is bad. Killing bad people is bad too. Americans have no, absolute no, justification to kill people in Afghanistan at this cross road in the scenario. Who will benefit from the escalation in this war? People who sell war products. Look into it, you may be surprised at who is making money on this...hey do you own a mutual fund, maybe in you IRA? Well, you too can make some extra retirement scratch from this killing field.

Change You Can Believe in means change, dummy. Unless it really is 1984 again.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Retailers Need You To Shop To Save The World From Total Shopping Collapse

Isn't sad that our world depends on our abilty to buy stuff. Things that we don't really need nor will even remember in two or three years from now.

There is a very large mall called Bahia Sur that is smack dab in the middle of a collection of beach communities here at the tip of Europe in the southern most part of Spain on the Atlantic coast. There are perhaps a half a million people within a 35 mile radius.

Spain as you probably know is suffering horrendous unemployment, above 17 % and rising. They have had a similar boom and bust in their residential property market similar to the U.S. Prices, peak to current trough are not down as much as the U.S. but they are still falling.

The mall and stores were packed. The parking lot was jammed and the police were out directing traffic and assisting people to find areas to park. Once inside though people seemed to be looking and having coffee and drinks over looking the bay and seemed not to be buying much. There is a large food supermarket, Carrefour, kind of like a Wall Mart, and they were packed and people were filling shopping carts with food. Their prices for food are the lowest in the area and their vast variety is unparalleled as well.

Outside of the food department it seemed that people were gravitating towards the cheapest products, TVs, computers, etc. and not much traffic around the high end stuff. Which is a bit of a cultural change for the Spaniards – normally when they do buy something they really want to “flash” and usually lean towards the high end expensive stuff.

IMO, people like to go out and mingle with the crowd and shopping offers an opportunity to do that. You don’t actually have to buy much or anything to enjoy that part of the experience.

As for me, I honored National Buy Nothing Day (as I do most days of the year).

Saturday, November 28, 2009

The new face of hunger in America is the white middle class, many of whom own homes and live in good communities. They have become unemployed or under employed and they have too many mouths to feed on too few dollars.

49 million people in the U.S. are "calorie deprived" that is to say they do not eat enough each day to afford themselves enough calories to stay healthy.

People go to bed hungry, mothers cut back and eat less so their children can have a bit more. Families struggle to feed themselves all across the nation.

One in six Americans say they do not have enough to eat and yet we throw away almost half the food that is produced.

I have a limited knowledge of the Federal Reserve Bank System. What I do know is from crack pot videos and other fringe viral media. Hey, where else can one get information on the Fed that isn’t Fed propaganda? Really, everything with the Fed is so hush hush…

Having said that, IMO the Fed just seems dirty and crooked.

It was conceived at a meeting of eight bankers and one U.S. Senator (from a large banking family) on Jekyll Island, Georgia, in 1910. These gentlemen represented near to 1/4 of the world's wealth. They wanted to create a cartel to protect their interests. They finally succeeded in 1913 in Congress and the large banks have been advantaged ever since. They have succeeded in destroying the value of the U.S. dollar by deliberately causing inflation by expanding the money supply at the request of the Treasury. The Treasury simply asks the Fed for money and magically, poof! it springs into existence by the very fact that the Fed "writes the check" to the Treasury. Much easier than Congress going to the public for the money by raising taxes or by cutting programs/expenses. In the end, the public is taxed by the erosion of their wealth.

Why is there so much secrecy surrounding the Fed? Why can’t they be audited. It is not a government agency and yet it has all the advantages the government has to offer. It’s not a private enterprise so it is not regulated as such. Huh, it is not a private company nor a government agency. What the heck is it? I don't trust them.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Elin Nordegren, wife and mother of two, proves the old macho adage - "No matter how beautiful the woman, somebody (that would be Mr. Woods woody) is tired of fracking her..."

Sad really, but what can America's first billionaire sports celebrity do with all that wood?

UPDATE: Saturday 2:30 PM - Elin has said she bashed in Mr. Wood's SUV window with a nine iron (golf club) because she was trying to save him. How long will it take Mrs. Woods to realize that in this great country the spouse gets 1/2 of all assets (1 billion divided by 2 = a SH*T LOAD OF STOCKHOLM FJORD FRONT REAL ESTATE, COFFEE AND OPEN FACED SANDWICHES).

UPDATE:Sunday 4:00 PM - "This situation is my fault, and it’s obviously embarrassing to my family and me,” Woods said. “I’m human and I’m not perfect. I will certainly make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Woods said it was a private matter, and he wanted to keep it that way. “Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible,” he said.

Irresponsible? Now he is a comedian. Hey why not just tell the truth? Oh yea, then you may loose some $$$ from sponsors who are selling your ass as an honorable person. Now that would be irresponsible, indeed.

Michaele and Tareq Salahi crash the White House State DinnerFor almost nine years we have been subjected to extraordinary measures to assure our security. Take off your shoes, no you can not bring a pen knife on board, no liquids are allowed.

OK. We were doing this to insure our safety. How many millions, billions, of collective hours have been wasted checking our bodies for things that are not there. Well, it is for the greater good.

OK. After the complete melt down of our financial system and the Banksters high jacking of our government we thought well at least these officials know how to protect us. Security.

OK. It is time to batten down the hatches on the eve of Obama declaring an unprecedented escalation of the war on Arabia, in Afghanistan. Our best of the best will be there to protect us.

And then two nincompoops, waltz into the first State Dinner and "hang out" with the powers that be. Classic are the photographs of these two reality show hopefuls with, Rahm Emanuel, The Marine Guard and V.P. Joe Biden (twice).

How did these two celebrity wannabes, veritable nut cases, get within a few inches of The President? They shook his hand...

The spin doctors are now saying: "Hey nothing to worry about, they were scanned and had no weapons on them." If you are a trained assassin aren't your hands lethal weapons...?

How much more incompetent do our leaders have to be for us to wake up?

Goldman Sachs big wigs will be getting million dollar bonuses this Christmas.

You, if you are lucky will be getting Zhu Zhu pets.

Goldman Sachs received 16 billion dollars from the AIG bailout.

You, if you are lucky will see your great grand children pay back the borrowed money from those bailouts.

Goldman Sachs borrows money from the Federal Reserve Bank at near 0% interest.

You, if you are lucky will be able to borrow money for those Zhu Zhu pets at near 30% interest.

Why does Goldman Sachs get the goodies and you get a lump of coal? Because they are doing the work of God and you are just a mere mortal living in their world. So stop whining and have the decency to be thankful to them for allowing you to play with the mechanical hamsters.

The average credit card debt fell from 5700 dollars to 5600 dollars in the last six months. Not much really. That is a lot of debt to be carried at 10 to 30 percent interest. And guess what, the banks really really need you to pile on some more debt because they have got to "earn" their way out of the financial mess they dug themselves into by selling you crappy mortgages on over inflated houses.

Stand up if you love your country. Go out, buy something, anything and make yourself feel better and the person you give to feel great as well. If you don't have the cash, not to worry the Banksters are there behind you

(see above photo illustration)

and will lend you what ever you need at 30%, but hey who's counting. The economy is rebounding, the housing market is bouncing and it is the holidays. You deserve a treat. And it's good for Ameri-caca too.

The following video should help get you in the shopentertainment mood:

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

On This Thanksgiving I am Thankful for not being sold into slavery to pay my family's debts.Some Indian farmers are selling their wives to pay debts, a practice social workers say is as much about the low social status of women as it is poverty. The financial crisis in India is taking its toll.

A spokesperson for Goldman Saks and Morgan Stanley Chase says there is no need for regulation: 'It would only gum up sales' and 'muck up profits'. They claim that the market itself can self regulate. When asked about the moral aspect of this "market", the spokesperson started to giggle uncontrollably and hung up the phone.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded to question regarding the above with the now becoming standard Obama administration's response:

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Last night Hollywood Royalty attended Obama's first White House State Dinner. Hm mm, sounds cool. Did you get an invitation? Me neither.

All Presidents do this and it is normally a time for the entire nation to enjoy, vicariously, such a glamorous event. I am sure we are all too young to have experienced the Kennedy State Dinners. The entire nation felt in on the celebration. They felt included.

Why does this one seem to be held almost in secret? Why is the guest list so closely guarded? Why do most Americans feel left out? Under G.W. Bush, sure we understood that.

IMO: With nearly 1/5 (U6 unemployment rate) of Americans out of or in need of more work this type of event is in bad taste. Is this the time and place for the wealthy, strong and advantaged of our country to get together and pat themselves on the back? Serving vegetables from the White House garden almost sounds like a "Let Them Eat Cake" moment when 49 million Americans are now officially classified as "lacking in necessary daily calories". Mrs Obama planting the garden last Spring was kind of cool and sent a great massage to a nation in need of hope and direction. Having the white gloved staff harvest it and serve it to 400 Hollywood Fat Cats seems kind of out of touch with the pain of a nation in crisis.

If all the Big Shots from Hollywood were working hard to keep their names out of the press, I wonder how many Banksters and Wall Street Thugs were in attendance. We probably will never know.

This all happens on the eve of President Obama announcing to ESCALATE the WAR in Afghanistan.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Yea that sounds great. We give you 2500 dollar credit for your worthless car and you sign up for five to seven years of debt on a new car at 10 percent interest. Yea you really need a new 20,000 dollar car and another 10,000 in interest payments over the life of the loan.

Is the government working for you or the banks?

How did we ever arrive at the place where it is normal practice to get something now and pay for it later?

Why not save your money and then buy a car. Once you have that car, save a little money for the 10 years you are driving it so you will have the money to buy a new car when you need it.

How did Americans get sold such a scheme to not only have to pay for the things they need but to pay an added charge on top for everything. And some of those charges (30% interest on credit cards) can add up with enough time to exceed the actual worth of what was originally purchased.

Being in debt must be like living in Hell. Owing money on things you bought in the past must be like being a slave. A modern day nation of slaves.

I spend most of my time in France and Spain and here we often discuss the merits of spending more than two euros for a bottle of wine. I often buy wine between one and two Euros a bottle and it is very good.

Why is wine so expensive in the U.S.? Really it never ceases to amaze me. When I am back in America (East Coast) I am in shock on how expensive the basics of life are. An ordinary Chardonnay for 11 dollars when a similar bottle of a dry white from the province of Cadiz, Spain sells for 80 cents. A full bodied red for 20 dollars when a similar ordinary Bordeaux sells at the local French supermarket for three.

Property taxes here are about 1/1000 of the value of the property per year. You do pay a tax when you sell, up to 18% on any profit. If you are not speculating and just owning then this is a great system.

Insurance costs: about 1/5 for medical, about 1/6 for house and about 1/2 for car.

I pay more in property tax (2.2%) and homeowner insurance for my house in the U.S. then I spend for an entire year here in Spain for all my insurance (car, house, medical), all the utilities (electric, trash, water, gas) gas for the car, and ALL THE FOOD AND WINE FOR TWO. For An Entire Year.

Why is the basics of life here in France and even more so in Spain so much more afordable then in the U.S.? What happened to the standard of living in America?

Europeans are living the American Dream. Where did all the wealth in America go?